A couple of weeks ago, I posted a review of a new health information search engine, Healia.  After touring, I found that I had many more questions about the story behind Healia. Recently I was afforded the opportunity to spend some time talking with Tom Eng and Craig Husa about their work and their vision for Healia. How did you come up with the idea for Healia?

Tom:  I have 20+ years of experience in public health, both in the US and abroad. That experience has taught me exactly how important information is in helping people to find factors and things that can help them lead a healthier lifestyle.

Thus, in 1999, Tom came up with the idea for a search engine specifically for health information.  Then in 2001, he was given an Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Instates of Health.  He explained that the current version of Healia has been in development for 4 years.  Tom also notes that the National Cancer Institute has been very supportive with R&D, getting the word out and financially. How did you come up with the name?

Tom: The name was hard.  As you know, most good names are already taken.  It took us about 6 months to come up with it and it is derived from two concepts.  Part of the name is Heal which comes from health.  The other part is a derivation from Helios, the Greek god of the Sun who sees and knows all.

What is your take on the Internet’s impact on the delivery of healthcare?

Tom:  The Internet as a public platform has only been with us for 10 or 12 years.  Its probably too early to draw any conclusions.  However, we are seeing a shift in how people get health services and how they find information on how to live healthier.  It will probably fundamentally change how we interact with providers and systems. In the last few years there has been a push for consumer-driven healthcare. It is here to stay.  The perfect storm of the Internet as a vehicle has given consumer-driven healthcare traction.  Employers are pushing health plans that encourage employees to take more control of their health services. People are having to learn how to help themselves.  They are having to direct their own care:  when they purchase, where they purchase, who they purchase from. Individuals are getting more control over their health destiny. Craig: Healia is to help people educate themselves. With the vast information out there on the Internet, people are coming in to their doctors with fraudulent stuff and it is taking more time for physicians to sort out. Healia hopes to streamline this process.  Decrease waste and decrease duplicity of services.

What is your favorite feature of Healia?

Tom:  I don’t really have a favorite, but I would like to talk about three really important features.  Quality:  All search engine results should have a minimum level of quality. Healia really has focused on making sure that searches produce high quality results.  Personalization of search results: Content filters based on algorithms enables people to precisely drill down to the most relevant results for them. Ability to give other search terms: We have tried to build in relationships between general search terms and very specific terms. This enables people with limited medical knowledge to expand their searches to very specific medical terms.  This really gives users intelligent and guided searches based on their needs.  Its almost as if you get your own health librarian.

Tom and Craig went on to tell me about a blinded study that was conducted by an outside agency to examine the quality of the searches from Healia.  In this study, three physicians were asked to rate the quality of search results from Healia compared to the search results on the same search terms from Google.  The physicians were not informed which search engine generated the results.  All results from Healia were preferred to those of Google. How do you plan on getting the word out about Healia?

Tom: We are, of course, using traditional methods of advertising.  However, we want to use bloggers to get the word out. 

Tom and Craig also talked about partnering with organizations to put Healia on their site.  One partnership they can talk about is with the Veterans Administration.  Healia is currently  the search engine for the E-vet Program, the VA’s personal health record program.  They are working on expanding these types of partnerships. How are you measuring success?

Tom:  Just like every other Internet site, we measure how many people use our service, but that doesn’t really tell you if you are successful.  More importantly, we want to be the ultimate consumer health search engine tool where any person can get a good answer to any health question at any time.  This is harder to measure.  We hope that one day people will let us know exactly how Healia has helped them.  Newspaper articles, letters or positive feedback submitted through our site would certainly be a sign we are doing something right.

Lastly, is there anything that you would like people to know about you as a person?

Tom:  Healia is based on my many years in public health at local, state and national levels as well as in over two dozen countries.  I’ve seen first hand how important it is for people to have access to personalized health information.  A few years ago I went to the Ukraine, where I was able to go to Chernobyl, where in 1986 there was a terrible nuclear plant disaster. The government never told the people in the surrounding area of the health risks of the residual radiation and many citizens today are still having health problems because they never knew their health was in danger.  If people there were able to educate themselves about the risks, things could possibly have been different for a lot of people. So, I’m hoping that Healia will be a place where people can go to get good information so that can help them lead healthier lives. Craig:  Not about me specifically, but the team here is really talented and dedicated. There is the underlying theme here [at Healia]:  There are a lot of places to work, but all the people here are passionate about what the company is doing to educate and empower people improve their health and lives.

Thanks to Tom and Craig for their time.  From talking with them I’m convinced that they have assembled a talented, multidisciplinary team that really does genuinely want to enhance people’s lives by providing quality personalized health information that enables folks to take a more active role in their own health and wellness.  At this stage, they seem focused on improving the search engine and are actively soliciting and responding to feedback.  So drop by Healia and give it a spin on topics that reflect your own health interests.  Then drop them a line– feedback buttons are posted on almost every page.

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